TEXT IN ENGLISH
Our outer acts, even gestures and postures should somewhere reflect something of this divinity within. Even a ritual act must be at once a symbol as well as expressive of an inner movement.
At the Feet of The Mother
Religion
TEXT IN ENGLISH
True spiritual life begins with an aspiration, a seeking for the Divine, to discover and become one with Him. Whatever helps in process is good whether it be a ritualistic worship or doing one's work with dedication to God for the joy of serving Him.
Video in Hindi
A talk by Dr Alok Pandey at the 50th All Orissa Sri Aurobindo Study Circle Conference
Video in Hindi
50th All Orissa Sri Aurobindo Study Circle Conference. Recorded on April 5, 2021, at Matrubhaban, Sri Aurobindo Marg, Cuttack, Odisha
A concluding part of the series by Dr Alok Pandey.
True pooja or worship is not a rule-bound ritual but a state of devotion and prayer and offering of ourselves at the Feet of the Divine, through whatever means, through the heart's love, through the body's work done as a service.
Indian thought and spiritual experience do not regard the gods and goddesses as final and last truth. They are each a power and aspect of the One Infinite Divine. There is but nought than the One alone, ekamevadwitiyam, One without a second, as the Vedas put it.
In India the festival of Lights is celebrated as Deepawali, meaning thereby a garland of lamps. It is generally regarded as the day Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana and thereby uniting with his divine consort Sita.
The connection between the inner and the outer, the spiritual and the religious, especially giving a new body to what we continue to follow as blind rituals, is a part of the complex work that needs to be taken up.